MARCH 2022
CAPA MEMBERSHIP: WE’RE HERE FOR YOU
Although the March 31st deadline to renew your membership has passed, CAPA offers a grace period for those who have not yet had the chance to renew. However, after May 31st, 2022, you will no longer have access to your member benefits. To ensure there is no disruption in member services, renew your membership for the 2022-2023 membership year today. If you wish to pay by installment payments, contact admin@capa-acam.ca.
Certified PAs and members tracking their CPD with CAPA
As per the PACCC CPD policy, all CCPAs and members tracking their CPD through CAPA for their provincial requirements must meet the following:
- must annually renew their CAPA Membership
- must earn and report 400 credit hours over the course of your five-year cycle
- must earn and report 40 credit hours annually, even in the years after you have reached the 400-credit minimum requirement.
- at the end of the five-year cycle; there must be at least 25 credit hours in Section 1 and 25 credit hours in Section 2. You may still earn and report activities in Section 3, however, having a minimum number of credit hours in this section is NOT a condition for meeting your CPD requirements.
The use of the CCPA designation is a recognized symbol of superior training and commitment to lifelong learning. Your professional designation is a confirmation for your employer, regulator, colleagues, and governments, that you have achieved the highest standard of excellence and are staying up to date, as established in the national competency profile EPA-PA.
Participants in the Mainport ePortfolio system with a lapsed CAPA membership will be advised of their INACTIVE CAPA membership status after the membership renewal period (31 May). At that time, participants will be referred to the PACCC CPD Policy and reminded that all participants must adhere to the requirements of the maintenance of certification or maintenance of competencies.
ADVOCACY NEWS
National
Health Care Worker Crisis Summit Part II
CAPA staff participated the Health Care Worker Crisis Summit Part II, organized by the Canadian Medical Association and Canadian Nursing Association. There were over 40 other health organizations present at the meeting. Key priorities identified include creating a robust data source of health human resources; implementing a multi-disciplinary nationwide health human resource strategy; and committing to transform Canada’s health care system for the future. More information can be found here: https://www.cma.ca/news-releases-and-statements/canadas-health-system-life-support-health-workers-call-urgent
Health Human Resource Strategy
CAPA staff met with the Federal Minister of Health’s office on March 10th to discuss adding PAs to the Health Human Resource strategy. As PAs were not included in the federal mandate letter, it was requested that moving forward, when the HHR strategy is mentioned that PAs be included in the list of healthcare providers. The Minister’s office confirmed they would recommend the addition of PAs. During the meeting the need for more PA programs and training spots was talked about, along with refreshing our efforts to advocate for the introduction of PAs into Indigenous communities. The Minister’s office will also be connecting CAPA with Employment and Social Development Canada, as well as Indigenous Services Canada. The meeting concluded with the idea of holding a public facing event to highlight PA successes to increase public awareness with the Minister’s office offering to promote on social media.
PA Education Advocacy Campaign
With a limited number of PA training spots in the country (combined total of 69 seats between the three programs) and the demand for PAs outpacing the supply, CAPA has launched a PA education advocacy campaign. Letters have been sent to all Canadian medical schools inviting them to develop a PA Program, along with an information brief outlining the profession. CAPA has also begun to circulate a graphic on social media to draw attention to the matter and advise how training more PAs will help with the shortage of health care professionals in the country. Please share the graphic on your social media channels to bring widespread attention to this issue.
British Columbia
The B.C. government has announced a public consultation on their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We encourage you to fill out the survey, highlighting how PAs would have been able to help British Columbians during the pandemic if they were allowed to practice in B.C. There is an opportunity to provide feedback until April 20. The survey is available here.
Alberta
Early in March, CAPA staff and Board Director, Kirsten Luomala, met with the Minister of Health’s Senior Advisor. The meeting went well and the Advisor, who is new to the role, is keen on learning about and supporting PAs.
The Alberta Health Services Board announced the departure of Dr. Verna Yiu as CEO. CAPA has reached out to Mauro Chies, vice president of Cancer Care Alberta and Clinical Support Services, who will serve in the role of interim CEO on a temporary basis, to request a meeting to speak about PAs.
Following the town hall with Dr. Neil Gibson, several Alberta PAs have reached out to ask if CAPA has a template letter they can use to write to their MLAs. This template letter is attached here. If you are interested in writing to your MLA, we strongly encourage you to customize the letter with your individual stories – as those garner the best responses.
CAPA is still investigating unionization options for Alberta based PAs. Watch out for a survey that will be sent to Alberta PAs in the coming weeks which will ask for feedback on labor representation options.
Saskatchewan
The Government of Saskatchewan has announced it is creating a new agency to recruit and retain health-care workers. Once more details have been announced, CAPA will be in touch with this office to educate them about PAs. If you would like to learn more about the Government of Saskatchewan’s recently released budget, as it pertains to health, you can read more here.
Manitoba
Board Director, Steve Hall, had a letter to the editor published in the Winnipeg Free Press on the benefits of PAs. You can read the letter here.
CAPA is planning an advocacy training workshop and media training workshop for Manitoba based PAs. In these sessions we will give PAs the tools and resources to effectively engage their elected officials on PA priorities.
CAPA will be sending out a comprehensive dedicated newsletter to Manitoba PAs in the coming weeks. The focus of this newsletter will be updating Manitoba PAs on CAPA’s advocacy in the province and giving details on the workshops being planned.
As always, if any Manitoba PAs have questions, concerns, or feedback for CAPA, they can always reach Manager, Advocacy and Stakeholder Relations – West, Marina Banister, at mbanister@capa-acam.ca.
Ontario
Retention Bonus
Premier Ford recently announced a $5,000 retention bonus for frontline nurses in Ontario. In response, CAPA sent a letter to Premier Ford and Minister Elliott commending their government for recognizing the hard work of nurses in helping to combat the health care crises in the province, as well as their efforts in providing a solution to help fix the nursing shortage. The letter also outlines the valuable contributions PAs are making to health care, including work on the frontlines, and requested that the government consider providing a retention bonus for PAs as well. Visit the CAPA website to read the full letter.
Ontario Health
Ontario Director, Anthony Desloges met with Ontario Health on March 9th to provide practice feedback and challenges PAs face working in hospitals or primary care settings as it related to digital health and access to medical records. The meeting was productive with the contact at ON Health agreeing to recommend that PAs are added to the list of patient providers and that a follow-up meeting be held in a month’s time to discuss progress.
Election
In preparation for the Ontario election on June 2nd, staff sent letters to the Liberal and NDP leaders, requesting that they include PAs in their election platforms. The request is that the leaders pledge to include the allocation of funding to support the creation of 100 new training spots for PAs over the next three years in their campaign platform. The same request has been made previously to Premier Ford.
Ministry of Health
On February 1st, CAPA staff met with the Ministry of Health. A follow-up meeting took place on March 29th to continue the discussion on where/how progress for PAs can be made in a few different workstreams such as Long-Term Care and Home Care. CAPA will continue to work with the Ministry on the expansion of PAs in Ontario.
Regulation
CAPA has worked with the CPSO to develop draft regulations for approval by the Ministry of Health. The Ministry has agreed to form a regulation working group, a tripartite committee whose members consist of Ministry, the CPSO and CAPA to get the work done needed to see regulation through to the end. CAPA will keep members apprised as meetings take place.
OPAA
The OPAA will hold a member meeting on May 16th from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm to discuss member dues and the CLAC Service Agreement. A communication with participant information will be sent out shortly.
Québec
On March 21st, Quebec Director, Jean-Nicolas Chagnon met with Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière and M. Louis Lemieux, Member of the National Assembly of Québec (St-Jean). The meeting was favourable with support for PAs in Québec the point of discussion.
New Brunswick
On March 24th, New Brunswick Provincial Director, Ryan Bennett and CAPA had a follow-up meeting with Deputy Minister of Health Heidi Liston. The Minister’s office is working quickly to expand the use of PAs in the province into primary care. If you are interested in working in New Brunswick, please contact Manager of Advocacy and Stakeholder Relations for eastern Canada, Kristy Corrente at kcorrente@capa-acam.ca.
CAPA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
CAPA 2022 will take place at the Hilton in beautiful Quebec City from November 10th – 13th. Presentation proposal abstracts must be submitted by April 18th, after which time the Program Planning Committee will begin developing the program. CAPA is looking for clinical skills workshops, along with oral and panel presentations. For more details, please visit the CAPA website. Submit your presentation proposal by using the template provided, along with a completed disclosure form.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT SURVEYS
The University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry has asked PAs to fill out this survey to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on double-duty caregivers — Canadians providing healthcare and then as a family caregiver at home. It is delivered on the secure REDCap survey platform https://redcap.link/doubleduty. The study has been approved by the University of Alberta Health Research Ethics Board Pro00117700. The survey will be open until June 30, 2022.
PAs IN THE NEWS
On March 26th Jaime Battiste, Liberal MP for Sydney-Victoria wrote a guest opinion entitled Physician assistants a fast, affordable health-care solution. The piece highlights the need for innovative support in the health care system and increasing the number of PAs in Canada.
JOB LISTINGS
Visit the Job Listings in the members only section of the CAPA website for the latest career opportunities. In March we’ve added job ads for Portage District General Hospital in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, for Boundary Trails Health Center in Winkler/Morden, Manitoba as well as at One Vascular in Oakville, Ontario and at Sick Kids (haemotology/oncology) in Toronto, Ontario. There are also many other job ads listed in family medicine, neurology, and mental health.
If you have job ads to share or know a physician or organization looking to incorporate PAs into their practice, send them to us at admin@capa-acam.ca. We post job ads for free on the Job Listings page and, for a small fee we can email job opportunities directly to all our members.
CPD EVENTS
Don’t forget to check out the CPD Events Calendar on the CAPA website where you’ll find upcoming events to help you meet your maintenance of competencies or maintenance of certification requirements. Many organizations share their educational events with us.
STAKEHOLDER EVENTS
The Canadian Conference on Medical Education (CCME) hosts the largest annual gathering of medical educators in the Country. CCME is the place for medical educators to share and experience the latest innovations and approaches, and foster relationships across the medical education community. Learn more here.
CERTIFICATION
2022 PA Cert Exam
Registration for the 2022 PA Cert Exam which will be administered on October 6, 2022 will be open on June 16, 2022 for 13 weeks. The registration deadline will be September 22, 2022 and it is important to note that NO registrations will be accepted after this date.
Once all the registrations are completed, candidates will be provided with information on how to proceed with getting registered through the ProctorU platform.
Reminder notices will be included in all future news bulletins as well as correspondence with the programs and directly to the list of eligible exam writers.